Falling Over

Let me set the stage for you. Last week my typical working day was 8:30AM to 1AM. Get up and do it again. I work from 8:30 to 4PM with the Iraqi's. Take a short break and then at about 6PM I start the Chicago work day, which ends at 1AM my time. There were a couple of days I knocked off early at 11PM. Thursday night I took a dinner break and hung out with someone talking about politics (which is exhausting), then I went back to work for a couple of hours and went to bed around 2AM. My plan was to sleep in Friday morning and then go to work when the Chicago office started work in their morning.

Here is what happened instead. 9:30AM one of my teams showed up for work. I think it is lovely of them to come in on their day off because there is a lot going on. Unfortunately, they come to work in my apartment and I can't sleep. I wake up, I read for awhile and then I put on a face mask (because it is always freaking sunny here), some ear plugs and I roll over to try to go back to sleep. That is when the electricity goes out. Normally it goes out for a short while and then it pops back on. Nope, not this time. It isn't too hot right now, but without the background fan noise my little brain kept whirring away and that was it-the end of sleep. I got up and wandered out to the office, spoke with my staff and then wandered upstairs to eat. I've barely been eating because I am so stressed out that nothing appeals to me. There is no subway, potbelly's or cosi to run to and you know what you always eat there so you do not have to think about what you want to eat. Here there is some greasy local food and whatever is left in the fridge.

I make myself some scrambled eggs with smoked salmon that we got from Erbil. You cannot find smoked salmon here. I eat my delicious breakfast and then I lay down on the couch to watch some tv with every intention of getting up and getting some work done in a little bit. Three hours later the doorbell rings and it is our driver bringing up Kari's stuff (she had gone on a business trip to Dohuk-oh the exotic places we go!). He's so apologetic, but really it was time for me to get up. Kari gets back with our friend Mo and we're talking and making dinner and then after dinner I start to lose it. I grab the bottle of nutella and start eating it with a spoon and Mo tells me that stuff is bad for me, don't do it. Then I start crying and then he doesn't know what to do with a crying girl, so he offers to make me a nutella sandwich. I eat my nutella sandwich and Kari gets me a zanax and then we smoke some shisha. Sigh.

I go to bed around midnight with every intention of sleeping in until noon and then at 9AM my doorbell rings. Seriously!! Tomorrow another week of hell starts. At least for tonight we have pie. When I am stressed I bake.